AgForce Links Fire Risk To Laws

AgForce CEO Mike Guerin
(Photo: AgForce)

July 17, 2019

AgForce says the State Government has failed to heed farmers’ concerns for two years about the Vegetation Management Act which it blames for contributing to last year’s catastrophic bushfires in Queensland.

The lobby group said the Inspector-General of Emergency Management’s (IGEM) review had found the bureaucratic, restrictive and confusing nature of the laws had hamstrung landowners in both preventing and managing bushfires.

The review found exemptions to vegetation management legislation, that allow for land clearing specific to bushfire mitigation, were not understood by everyone.

It noted that some landholders saw legislation and “permit to light” regulations that guide mitigation activities as complex, and a barrier to effective bushfire mitigation.

It recommended that to make planned burning and land clearing easier to understand and implement for landholders, a single point of contact for all bushfire mitigation inquiries and permits should be established.

Recommendation 9 stated that “Given an increasing risk of intense fires, the framework of legislation relating to vegetation management, bushfire mitigation and hazard reduction, together with mitigation and preparation priorities should be re-assessed. The re-assessment should aim to enable more appropriate and flexible means at the local level for the reduction of intense fires.”

However, Inspector-General Iain MacKenzie later clarified this last recommendation, saying he was not calling for a change to legislation:

“I advise that the desired outcome of the recommendation is, given the propensity for large scale events in the future, to enhance the ability for the reduction of risk through consistent and practical means of identifying, implementing and monitoring mitigation activities at a local level. It is not the intent of the recommendation to initiate legislative review or reform of any particular piece of legislation but to develop improved means of navigating and applying existing legislative frameworks to achieve the above.”

AgForce CEO Michael Guerin said his organisation had been warning the government about the dangers of “ill-considered, ideologically-dogmatic” vegetation management laws for nearly two years.

“The 2018 bushfires proved that the Vegetation Management Act was impractical, if not impossible, from a landholder’s perspective, and prevented them from implementing effective fire prevention measures, such as adequate backburns and firebreaks.”

Mr Guerin endorsed Recommendation 9.

“We applaud the IGEM for the thoroughness and honesty of his review and can only hope the government reflects on and implements – not just ‘in-principle’ accepts – the recommendations,” he said.

“In particular, his conclusion that frequent and regular changes to the VMA over many years have left landowners confused as to what they can and cannot do to prevent fires without breaking the law is frightening.”

The report found “frustration and fear” pervaded conversations with landholders, including the fear of breaking the laws as they saw them.

It said: “One property owner in Central Highlands demonstrated his need to build a break larger than the legislated 10 metres along the fence line, because the breaks on adjacent State land were inadequate” but that “this approach, while highly practical and undoubtedly effective during these events, was technically in breach of legislation.”